Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!ssd
From: ssd@sugar.uu.net (Scott Denham)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Summary: Another Technician story
Message-ID: <3437@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 15 Feb 89 19:40:09 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <532@geovision.UUCP> <4575@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> <911@mailrus.cc.umich.edu>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 15

Along the lines of computer technician horror stories, I shall always 
remember an incident that occured a number of years ago when I was the
night shift supervisor at a site using a big IBM 370/165 system. We had
recently added a whole MEG of "brand X" memory (the size of a walk-in
freezer!!) and were having gobs of trouble with it. One very tired, 
semi-competent tech was on-site trying to fix it. I was twiddling my 
thumbs wondering if I should send my guys home, having already cleaned
all the tape drives 4 times and swept the floor twice. I go back by the
processor where this guy is working, and find him with 6-8 big RAM boards
spread out on the floor. He's sitting on a box with a board in his lap,
soldering a chip in. His soldering iron builds up a nice excess glob of
molten solder, and he nonchalantly flips it off with a jerk of his
wrist....  DIRECTLY AT THE PILE OF RAM CARDS SPREAD OUT ON THE FLOOR!!!!
I sent the crew home, we were still down when I got back the next night,
and the lease on that box memory box was *NOT* renewed!!!!!